Re: ratifying the charter?

[Jon Bosak <bosak@boethius.eng.sun.com>]

I attempted a hurried reply to Karl's question when it first
appeared but was prevented from posting to the list due to a mail
problem, and I think that Karl was the only person who received
the message.  In it I said the following:

   The members are committed to the purpose of the TC as stated in
   the proposal.  They can refine that purpose but not change it.
   Further ratification is not only not necessary but would create
   the false impression that the purpose stated in the proposal is
   open to change.

   People who "join the TC because of the topic of discussion, but
   don't agree with the details of the charter" should leave that
   TC and start their own.  This is one of the reasons we made it
   trivially easy to start a TC and took OASIS out of the position
   of deciding which of two competing TCs is the "right" one.

Checking now, I find that the relevant section of the bylaws says:

   12. TC Revision

      A TC can clarify its statement of purpose; revise its
      deliverables; and change its meeting schedule.  Such changes
      shall be reported on the TC announcement list, and any
      revisable publicly visible description (e.g., Web page)
      promulgated by the TC shall be updated to reflect such
      changes.

We meant by the word "clarify" to limit the TC's ability to change
its purpose.  What we're trying to prevent is the case where five
people propose to do something and ten other people who disagree
with the purpose of a group join it in order to torpedo the effort
by changing the purpose.

Karl's question indicates that we may have been a bit too subtle
here, but in retrospect I really can't think of a better way to
handle this.

Jon

==================================================================

Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 14:24:05 -0500
From: Karl Best <karl.best@oasis-open.org>
Subject: ratifying the charter?
To: workprocess@lists.oasis-open.org

Even though the TC process doesn't require that TC members do so, I would
like to be able to tell prospective TC participants that "the items
submitted to OASIS for the creation of the TC (i.e. committee name,
statement of purpose, list of deliverables, schedule, name of chair, etc.)
should all be ratified by TC members at the first meeting."

Should such ratification be suggested or even required, or should members be
committed to what was proposed when the TC was created? e.g. if people want
to join the TC because of the topic of discussion, but don't agree with the
details of the charter, should they be required to go with what was
proposed?

In other words, is the charter made law by default or by ratification?


</karl>
============================================================
Karl F. Best
OASIS - Director, Technical Operations
978.667.5115 x206
karl.best@oasis-open.org  http://www.oasis-open.org